


Be brave, be strong, I am with you

by OHGODITSEVERYWHERE



Category: X-Men (Movies), X-Men - All Media Types
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-10-15
Updated: 2015-10-16
Packaged: 2018-04-26 13:10:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,855
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5006014
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/OHGODITSEVERYWHERE/pseuds/OHGODITSEVERYWHERE
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A new, powerful mutant has appeared, with power over the elements (not Aang), after running away from home (not Aang) and finding out that his best friend is dead (not. F* % ng AANG!). But anyway, after being rescued from a mutant coliseum, he is forced to choose; defend humanity, or destroy it? become an X-man, or one of the brotherhood? or will the pressure be too great?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. The mutant Coliseum

Hello people! Thank you for choosing this story, and I hope you enjoy! Disclaimer: I do not own X-men or anything else I reference, and ohh will there be references!

Font scheme guide:

Flashback/dream (they usually overlap)

Author's note

Telepathy/thought

timeskip

"WELCOME TO THE MUTANT COLISEUM! We have rounded up as many mutant scum as we can find, with help from the righteous Friends of Humanity, and they're going to fight to the death in a winner stays on Deathmatch! Now coming in to the arena is Ripper, who can control blades and bend them to his will. Let's hope that ..." After this point in the obnoxious Stetson-wearing announcer's speech, a young boy in a heavily guarded cage with about 8 other people began to weep and couldn't hear anything else. 'How am I meant to survive this?' He thought. 'Oh yeah, they don't want me to, unless I kill this Ripper, whoever they are, but I can't kill someone! No, come on, Rick. Desperate times, and they don't get more desperate than' his train of thought was then derailed by the pain of getting prodded by the butt of a rifle.

"Move, scum!" The 6'4 thing that looked more muscle than man snarled, jabbing him with the gun again.

"You know, they hurt more when you pull the trigger," Rick said with a slightly posh English accent, trying to recover some of his infamous sarcasm, walking out into the crowded arena.

"And THIS," Stetson man called, "is our newest gladiator, Rick Gardner! Powers, unknown, origin, eh, my guess is somewhere in England," this somehow got laughs from the crowds, "But none of that matters, cause unless he has amazing strength, Ripper Is going to rip him to shreds!" The audience erupted in a mixture of cheers, jeers, and some distasteful vulgarities, as Rick's mum would say. 'Oh mum, what do I do now?' Rick thought. 'What would you do here?"

Again, Rick's train of thought crashes and burns at the sound of the Indiana Jones rip-off shouting "3! 2! 1! FIIIIGHHHHTT!" The other person in the arena, apparently called Ripper, roared and raised his hand, causing a knife to levitate and fly towards him. Rick could barely follow it, and only just dove out of the way. He congratulated himself, before noticing a sharp pain in his side, and saw that he couldn't escape getting a long scratch from his shoulder to his hip. He screamed, and felt a burning rage build up inside him. It hurt, it hurt more than the scratch and he had to release all the heat. Rick roared, and a great tongue of flame shot out of his mouth, straight towards Ripper, who dove to one side and hid behind a rock. That would prove to be a big mistake, for once Rick had finished his temper tantrum from hell, and he stared at the rock Ripper was hidden behind with eyes darker than the blackest void.

Mr Popo: Hm?

The rock exploded into hundreds of shards, which then began bombarding the now retreating Ripper, his arm extended, pulling a long katana nearer to him. Once it reached him, Ripper turned and got into a fighting stance, and started using the katana to block the shards and destroy them. He didn't escape cuts and bruises, though, not deadly but distracting, just as the angry mutant Rick had wanted. He thrust his hands towards Ripper, and a tornado engulfed the sword-wielding gladiator, which began to throw him around.

Then, after an onslaught of pain, Ripper screamed "I concede! Please, just stop!"

Rick, though raging, heard his pleas and walked towards him, as menacingly as a wolf pack stalking its prey. He extended his arm, balling a now burning fist, aimed at Ripper. The crowd were chanting "Kill! Kill! Kill!" Stetson man was staring at him, nodding somehow creepily. Rick drew his arm back... And extended his hand for Ripper. "Come on," he said, "I'll get you patched up." Rick smiled, and Ripper took the hand, got up and slung his broken arm over Rick's shoulder, the two limping towards the exit to the coliseum.

When Rick entered his new sleeping quarters, he got thrown to the wall, and was restrained by two guards, with two more aiming their rifles at him. "Try anything, and they'll pull their triggers" Stetson man said, coming out of the shadows, snickering. "My, my, wasn't that a show?"

"I was just trying to survive" Rick said.

This earned him a strike to the face from Mr. Stetson. "DID I SAY THAT YOU COULD SPEAK, SCUM?" The cowboy wannabe started punching Rick all over, and kept going for what must have been half an hour. "Now you can talk, but ONLY WHEN I SAY, AND WITH THE COURTESY YOU'D GIVE YOUR QUEEN, UNDERSTAND?" Rick nodded, beaten and bruised. "Good. Now, why did you keep him alive? And I am not in the mood for any sarcasm, so don't try it.

Rick was about to say "because I don't kill", but he fancied keeping his balls outside his body. "B-because he was your best fighter. If you lost him, you'd lose loads of money.

The man stared at Rick then laughed. "Oh man kid you're a genius. None of my guys would've thought of that. If you weren't a mutant I'd hire you to be my assistant!"

Over the next few years, Ripper and Rick, who now called himself Spartan, fought day in and day out for the entertainment of the sick-minded, and grew closer day by day. You could almost mistake them for brothers. And with each battle, they became stronger. Ripper could control up to 20 different blades at once now. And it was a good thing too, because Spartan had figured out how he could use his powers to fly. He could make a tornado around himself and control it, he could do an iron man thing with his fire, or he could stand on a rock and levitate it. The only thing was that he couldn't use 2 elements at once, which cost him a lot of fights and caused him a lot of wounds. "I'm telling you, man, we're getting out of here. Both of us, just watch." This was something Ripper said every night to his British bro. They tried escaping many times. Rick would drill under the coliseum and tunnel out, but there were guards every 10 feet, and they only succeeded in getting tased and put into a metal cage. He'd try to fly them out, but there was a laser-induced plasma grid over the arena, and ripper almost lost his hand empire-style. They'd tried everything except rallying the mutants to escape, which was impossible as they were all kept in rooms of 2, and apart except when killing one another in the arena, and you couldn't really do a spider man and make speeches while other teenagers are throwing swords at you and turning into giant frog-fish-dragon hybrids to flatten you.

One day, it was an especially hot day, the fighters hardly got any water, and, to top it all off, they had to fight 3 times that day! The first fight was very routine, knives flying, fire blazing, until one of the 2 would win, with Ripper coming out on top this time. The second fight was much slower, and they were both still walking off injuries from the previous fight. Both Ripper and Rick were tired and didn't care anymore about not harming the other. That, and the crowd jeering, calling them scum, booing, was what caused it. Ripper had Spartan surrounded by buzz saws, and there was no way out. Then Spartan summoned a great fire to consume his body. He made it grow, bigger, hotter, bigger, hotter, until all the saws had melted. He didn't stop. He just let the fire grow even more. Ripper shouted something, but Spartan didn't hear it. He had blanked out. The last thing Spartan heard before collapsing, was Ripper screaming, as he melted, and soaked into the floor.

Rick awoke tied up in a cage. "What happened?" He managed to whisper.

"Ya killed Ripper. Melted into the floor," one of the guards said, laughing.

"No, you're lying!" He screamed. The guard said nothing. Rick wept. He wept for hours. He didn't stop until his entire body felt dry of tears. 'I have to get out of here' he thought. 'But this place is more heavily guarded than Fort Knox'. He slumped down in his cell. Then, he had an idea. Dozens of mutants had gone through the coliseum. Ones who could fly, ones who could make visions, ones who could make balls of light. There must be a telepath! Rick thought as hard as he could; 'Please, if there's a telepath out there, hear me. Help me! I'm trapped and scared and I don't know what to do. If you've heard this, please come to the mutant coliseum in Chicago tomorrow at 11:30. Help!'

Meanwhile, in Westchester...

"Logan, storm, Jean, Scott, get ready, I've found one."

#gonereference! #bighero6reference! #empirestrikesbackreference! #welcomespidey! Spartan is about 12 at the start of the chapter, and 15 when ripper dies. Btw he never thought of the telepath thing because Ripper was a little smarter than him and he thought of the escape plans. Please R+R, ad constructive criticism is verrry appreciated, and the next chapter will be uploaded after five reviews, and every fifth review will be referenced at the end of the chapter, including review #1. No flames, that's what Spartan does!

Baiiiiii!


	2. Ah-buh-buh- whaaaat?

The morning came, but help did not. Rick had hoped and waited all night, barely sleeping, but when the time came, the supposed telepath that he prayed for proved to be false. He stepped out into the arena, to see a huge, hulking man with a large red helmet and insane muscles. "Aaaaand here is your favourite, ladies and gentlemen! The strongest being in the world, nothing can stop him folks! HEEEEEEEEEEEEREEES JUGGERNAUT!" that goddamn Stetson guy was getting on his nerves. Juggernaut punched his hand and roared, but got no reaction from who he believed to be his victim. The crowd jeered at Rick and one threw a bottle at him, but he just stood there, emotionless. Then Juggernaut charged at him, and he simply jumped up with some wind assistance and threw a fireball at the steamroller man. Rick may as well have waved a red flag in front of a bull then, as Juggernaut turned and charged even faster then, roaring as he did. This got Rick to show a little fear, and he started raising stone walls only for Juggernaut to crash through them like the human torch through the North Pole. Realising he had no chance of survival in defence, he leapt up and used fire to propel himself into the air, just as the titan of terror was five yards away, and gaining fast. He nearly made it. Of course, "nearly" never won a bucket of squid at a gnomish roulette. He was so close to being safe, until Juggernaut grabbed Rick's foot, the searing flames coming from it seeming to have little to no effect on him, and tossed him about 30 feet away. Spartan heard and felt something break, and screamed, increasing the cheers of the crowd. His legs were broken, and the foot that the big f#$&;^ng monster grabbed was pointing the wrong damn way. His rage boiled over then. Rick levitated himself with air, and did something he knew could kill him, but he had to try, or he was a goner for sure. He was going to use two elements at once. Levitating himself with powerful winds, he brought his hands to his right side, cupping them, and putting as much fire in them as possible. "If I'm going to die, I'm going to go out swinging" He then began to focus harder than he ever had before, veins throbbing on his forehead and arms, and his body gaining a red tinge. "Wot're you doing, kid?" the massive monster sneered. Rick ignored him, and began to growl, as his red tinge turned blue. "Ooh, you can change colour, I'm soo scared," this got laughs from the crowd. Spartan began to yell as the blue turned yellow, then white, searing pain just begging to be released. He used all his might to push the pain to his hands, and screamed, "THIS IS WHERE YOU END!" "Let's leave a mark on this asshole" Spartan threw his hands forward and a great tongue of blue flame shot out, aimed at Juggernaut, whose face dropped when he saw the attack headed for his, uhh, juggernauts. Said Juggernaut would have retreated, but ice and rock had encased his limbs, preventing running away. Fear finally showing in the monster's eyes, Spartan smiled, evilly, and his own eyes caught fire. "No, please, don't kill me! Let me go!"The pleas fell upon deaf ears, and all that could be heard was the screams of a man being incinerated. Spartan lowered himself to the ground, and stood proud... for approximately 4 seconds. The strain of using all his elements was hitting him. He probably had about 50 seconds before he blacked out. "At least that big bastard is dead". "I've had it with you...'huff' 'huff'... I'm going to crush you!" Spartan almost wept. Why wouldn't this asshole die? Juggernaut sprinted towards the almost-corpse of his enemy. Spartan's vision started going blurry and black around the edges. The last thing he saw was a huge red beam-thingy hitting juggernaut square on the head. Thanks for reading, review and follow! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Lol just kidding! Here's the rest of it! Rick awoke in straps in some sort of plane. He blinked repeatedly to get his sight back. As his vision returned, he saw people sitting around him, and he was reminded of how he felt when he first saw his comrades in his first few days at the coliseum. They were quite a, uh, diverse group to say the least. One of them had stark white hair and a cape, another wore silver shades with a red visor, and one looked like the demon lovechild of a werewolf and a trucker, with a cigar sticking out of the side of his mouth. The only one who looked normal was the girl in the co-pilot seat, with red hair at shoulder blade height, and no oddities about her general appearance, but she gave Rick an uneasy feeling, like she was watching him, but not. "unhh," he groaned as all his muscles ached. "Oh, you're awake," the cigar guy mumbled, clearly not giving a damn. "Try not to move, you blacked out in the arena there and you've been unconscious for a few hours now," the white-haired girl explained. "Who… are you?" He managed to get out. The redheaded girl turned her chair to talk to him. "My name is Jean, that guy with the glasses is Scott, the guy sitting next to you is Logan, and the woman piloting us is Storm. We're mutants, just like you," all this said with a smile that Rick hadn't seen in a long time. "Thank you for helping me, I am in your debt," Rick was a bit nervous so wasn't sure how to talk to them. This got a chuckle out of Scott. "No need to be so formal, kid. Relax, you're with the X-men now," "The whodewhat?" Safe to say, Rick was confused. "The X-men, a group of mutants using their powers to protect people," Storm explained from the cockpit. "So, now that you've taken me, do I have to join you? Be a superhero and stuff?" "Not just yet, kid. If you want to join our ranks, you've first gotta go to school." As Scott said this, he looked out his window to see them vertically landing outside a huge mansion. "No. Freaking. Way." "Yeah, the other students usually say the -" Scott was cut short by Rick. "You have a jump-jet?!No way! These are so cool! Oh my God!" "Kid likes his rides, after my own heart," Logan chuckled. "Never thought you had one, Logan," Scott laughed, and Rick smiled a bit too. When they touched down, Rick moved to get up, but a wave of pain forced him back onto his seat. "Hold on, I've got you," Jean raised her hands and he felt himself rise up. As he was over the ground, he didn't want any more help. "No, let me. I can do it myself, but thanks." With that he raised a flat stone slab underneath him. Scott smiled. "Let's go meet the professor." Aaaaaaaand scene! OK, great take guys, that's a wrap! No reviews yet but hopefully when a few chapters are up, that'll change xx (fingers crossed). Again, 5 reviews before the next chapter, or when I feel like it. LOL! Also, new contest: if anyone can name all the references in each chapter, they get their review quoted in the following chapter! Plus a muffin. Anyways, see ya!


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